Curriculum Associates

Founded by a group of passionate educators, Curriculum Associates has been on a mission to make classrooms better places for teachers and students for more than 50 years. The company has grown tremendously from a small print publisher to a leading education technology provider, all the while keeping the best interests of students and educators at the forefront of every decision they make. Curriculum Associates is proving to the K-12 education industry that an ethical, long-term focused company is the one that will drive the best results. It believes that the role of an education company is to help students and teachers succeed, and this dedication has defined its vision and driven company growth. Today, Curriculum Associates supports more than 8 million K-12 students in all 50 states with its programs.

Curriculum Associates believes companies can be a powerful force for good in the world. The company is proud to partner with other like-minded businesses who embrace and exemplify the four pillars of Conscious Capitalism. In upholding these principles, Curriculum Associates:

Focuses on its higher Purpose to improve the world of education for teachers and students

Holds its Leadership to the highest ethical standards

Works tirelessly to preserve and strengthen its award-winning workplace Culture

Ensures its actions and tools create value for the company’s Stakeholders at every level

​Higher Purpose

Curriculum Associates’ mission is to make classrooms better places for teachers and students. The culture is heavily tied to this mission, and as a result, employees at every level are committed to making a true difference in education.

Curriculum Associates’ values guide every action. It holds itself to high standards, with five simple yet powerful values guiding the team’s decisions and interactions. The company articulates its values as follows:

​The company is high in confidence but keeps its egos low.

Curriculum Associates’ employees say it like it is.

The quality of the company’s service is as important as the quality of its products.

Curriculum Associates measures itself by the impact it has on teachers and students, not by the size of its pocketbooks.

The company leads with integrity in all things, ensuring every action by every employee every day could appear on a newspaper cover.

In addition to upholding these shared values which shape the culture, the company has implemented several innovative, employee-focused initiatives that have supported growth while increasing employee satisfaction and retention.

The organization believes companies must recognize the fundamental importance of paying employees fairly and several years ago was among the first to voluntarily raise its minimum wage to $15/hour.

Curriculum Associates cares about its employees’ families and provides Employee Assistance Program (EAP) benefits to ensure they are taken care of.

The company knows that balancing work and home is not always easy, so with WorkLifeMatters, employees don’t have to face life’s challenges alone. This support includes daycare and elder care, legal and financial help, professional development, adult re-entry programs, and mental wellness programs.

Rob Waldron

​CEO

Conscious Leadership & Culture

Rob Waldron has always approached business with a social lens. During his early career, he worked at Morgan Stanley and volunteered at a NYC homeless shelter during the crack epidemic. Seeing this juxtaposition of worlds inspired him to look differently at traditionally-defined business success. His career has been driven by the belief that companies who do “well” financially will do best when they also serve the communities in which theyoperate. His search for a conscious company led him to become CEO of Curriculum Associates in 2008.

Rob believes in putting people over profits and treating his employees with grace. The impact of Rob’s many socially-focused corporate initiatives include voluntarily raising the minimum wage to $15/hour and working to “give away” the company to charity with a historic $200M gift. Rob also believes in hiring people, not positions, and spends over 50% of his time recruiting and hiring top talent. In addition, to ensure he lives up his conscious leadership standards, Rob welcomes feedback by inviting every employee to participate anonymously in his annual review. In the spirit of transparency, he then reports out all the results to the entire company. He feels the role of an education company is to help students and teachers succeed, and as a result of his conscious focus, employees at every level are committed to making a true difference in education.

2019 marks Curriculum Associates’ 50th anniversary. When Rob became CEO in 2008, he agreed to an unheard-of employment contract with 20-year terms. Embracing a long-term outlook, Rob led the bold decision to transition the company from a print organization to a digital publisher. Through the difficult years of the recession, the company continued its conscious commitment to providing the best possible tools for educators and students, all while working to save money and keep employees. Rob chose to invest all of the company’s sales in digital research and development, building out a tech team and bringing a CTO on board. This long-term thinking attracted world-class talent, bringing the company into the digital arena and making it the industry-leader it is today.